Hang corrupt, but protect the honest: IAS officers' body

Hang the corrupt but honest civil servants should not be harassed by probe agencies in service or after retirement, an association representing over 4,900 IAS officers said today and decided to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss providing protection to well-meaning officers with integrity.
"An honest civil servant should not be harassed by anybody or agency or institution while in service or after retirement. It would make the civil servants working in the system nervous and edgy, which would not be in the interest of the country," said Sanjay Bhoosreddy, Honorary Secretary of central IAS officers association.
A demoralised and demotivated civil service will be highly detrimental to the country, he said.

If the nation desires good governance, then it is imperative to ensure that honest officers are fully protected and not unnecessarily harassed, Bhoosreddy said.
"There is a need to protect honest civil servants from any kind of harassment for taking decision in good faith and in public interest. It is pertinent to emphasise that an error in judgement should not be treated as criminal misconduct as it would highly demoralise the civil servants.
"Error in judgement has to be looked at differently. We urge all the authorities that if a civil servant is found corrupt then please deal with it harshly and hang him to the nearest lamp post or jail him for life," he told PTI.

Bhoosreddy, a Joint Secretary rank officer in the Government of India, said the association has decided to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the larger issue of governance, of achieving higher developmental goals, and protection to honest and well meaning civil servants.

Replying to a question on former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, an accused in the coal block allocations scam, he said "As far as H C Gupta is concerned, he is known in the entire civil service as an upright, sincere, honest officer and enjoys a very good reputation."
The officers' body said no control of the Centre may lead to security threats in the present scenario, hindrance in corruption free clean economy and new modes of tax evasion by keeping the threshold below Rs 1.5 crore by creating several dummy companies and eventually revenue loss for the nation.

"It shall lead to mushrooming of a large number of proprietorship concerns and firms by the tax-payers in order to remain below the threshold turnover or under-report their turnover to remain out of dual tax administration, thereby incentivising the dishonest taxpayers," the letter said.
The association cited apprehension expressed by some of its members regarding the role of Central Board of Excise and Customs--apex body for indirect tax administration, in GST implementation and post-GST indirect tax administration.
"Our officers who have worked diligently while observing complete discipline are now dismayed by the prospects which await us. Batches of 200 bright young IRS officers were recruited every year since 2008 to implement GST and now they stand at the crossroads with deep sense of anguish and despair.

"We request your kind intervention and leadership to salvage the prospects of Centre and our service," it said.
Some members of the All India Confederation of Commercial Taxes Association (AICCTA), which claims to represent over 36,000 Gazetted officers and about two lakh employees of Class-III and IV categories working under state governments, had worked yesterday (on Sunday) seeking fair share in the administration of taxes under the GST regime.
The proposed GST is a single tax on supply of goods and services, right from the manufacturer to the consumer.